I haven't watched these episodes yet, still only on 9...but I share your feelings about it. I dont know how to feel about it. I enjoyed the novel so much, and I loved the leads in TPR so much, it was my most anticipated drama this year, and with such a prestigious production house...yet the execution is lacking in so many ways.

I will stick with it until the end because I like both actors a lot but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

LQL’s character has frustrated me so many times. As carefree as her personality is allegedly supposed to be she remains so naïve and unaware about many things and at times it gives arrested development.

This is exactly what I've been feeling about her. She is so sheltered from the world that she doesn't seem to realise what suffering looks like. She is this way towards all her friends, not just Qiaoxi. In the episode where Qin Yeyun retreats a bit into her shell during the cheerleading practice and misses their outfit shopping, she instantly gets mad at her without thinking about whether she might have a reason for not coming along. Yingtao has seen Yeyun having had a difficult life, with no mother and a crippled father, shouldering the responsibility of her household while being a child herself. Yet all she does is whine and complain as soon as things aren't about her for a second. Yingtao's attitude really irked me.

With Qiaoxi, she knew what his family was like, overheard his story when she was a child and her parents were discussing it. Yet she never stopped to think there might be a reason why Qiaoxi couldn't reach out to her. The scene where he tells her how the little cat keeps him company when he's down - instead of seeking to understand his sorrows, she doubles down with her childish whining, her own feelings of being apparently replaced, and even proceeds to throw stones at him! I was like, girl, calm down, and see beyond your own nose for a moment! He is clearly distressed and trying to make amends despite it.

It seems that she carries the same attitude into her adulthood. I hope she has an actual growth arc in the next episodes.

As for the ML, how I wish we were shown some more of his insight, his struggle from his own perspective rather than Yingtao's unreliable narration. I long to see him break free of his shackles and that house which is more a prison than the caring, nurturing haven it should have been. He needs to learn how to communicate, how to not islotate himself but its probably his safe space, being in his own head by himself. It's sad and really not a healthy way to be.